


Nagisa and Sousuke's (Pretty Okay) Tokyo Adventure!

by SoVeryAverageMe



Category: Free!
Genre: Bonding, Could be interpreted as pre-slash, Early Mornings, Food, Friendship, Gen, Interhigh Exchange 2018, Interhigh Treat, Post-Season/Series 02, Tokyo (City), Trains, acquaintances to friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-28
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-04-14 06:47:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14130420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoVeryAverageMe/pseuds/SoVeryAverageMe
Summary: When Nagisa woke Sousuke up at 6AM on a Sunday to go on an adventure, he figured one of two things could happen: 1) They would kill each other by the end of the day, or 2) It would be the start of the beautiful friendship.He got lucky when it turned out to be the latter.





	Nagisa and Sousuke's (Pretty Okay) Tokyo Adventure!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TereziMakara](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TereziMakara/gifts).



> I wasn't planning on writing on a Free! fic for Interhigh, but when I saw this prompt, I thought that the two of them made such a fun pair!
> 
> I hope that you enjoy!

It was 6AM when Sousuke was jolted awake by a knock on his door. He called down to Rin to deal with it, assuming it was one of their teammates having an early morning existential crisis. He yelled down again when there was no response, before remembering that Rin was home visiting his family.

The knocking persisted.

Sighing, he pushed the blankets back, cursed as his head hit the ceiling, and climbed down to the floor. He rubbed his eyes sleepily and pulled the door open.

“Good morning!”

Sousuke almost closed the door in response. Instead, he closed his eyes and hoped that this was all an elaborate dream. When he reopened them, Nagisa was still standing in front of him.

“What are you doing here? You don’t even go to school here.”

Nagisa invited himself into his room, walking past him and sitting down on the chair at his desk. He spun around several times, staring at the ceiling, leaving Sousuke with no answers. After a minute he slowed to a stop and flashed a giant smile in his direction. “I thought that we could go on an adventure!”

“Why don’t you go with one of your other friends?” he tried asking, attempting to foist this ‘adventure’ off on someone else.

“Everyone else is busy,” Nagisa pouted. “Gou is at home with Rin, Makoto and Haru are studying for entrance exams, and Rei is at an optometrist appointment. I tried asking Nitori and Momo, but when I stopped by their room, they just shoved a stag beetle in my face.”

Sousuke did not know whether it was a compliment or an insult that he was the very last person on his list to ask. “Look. Why don’t you come back in a couple of hours, and we can go on your adventure?”

Nagisa hopped out of the seat and pointed at him. “We have to go now.” He kept on stepping closer to him on each word. “I bought tickets and everything!”

He sighed and looked down at his feet, before raising his head to face Nagisa, who was standing less than two feet away from him. The look on Nagisa’s face was the exact same look that the underclassmen get when they had a stubbornly bad idea.

The kind of idea that it was way too late to stop.

He shook his head helplessly and Nagisa knew the exact moment he had won. He let out a little whoop of joy, and Sousuke shushed him before he could wake up the rest of the dorm. “Fine. I’ll go with you—” He raised his hand to cut Nagisa off before he could start. “But I have to change and you’re running down to the convenience store to buy us some breakfast.” 

The other boy nodded eagerly and jogged out of the room, stating he’d be back in 15 minutes. Sousuke rubbed his eyes and sighed, before grabbing some clothes and getting ready in the bathroom.

He managed to get ready with three minutes to spare, which is just enough time to stuff his wallet into his back pocket and send a text to Rin about the whole situation. Nagisa doesn’t even knock this time around, just walking in because the door hadn’t closed all the way when he had left.

He was handed a cinnamon roll that looks sickeningly sweet for 6AM and felt his hand getting tugged toward the door. He barely hadtime to grab his coat and check that he had his keys before the door was swung closed.

The two of the boarded an empty bus headed to the train station, and they sat, eating their breakfast in silence. Once they got to the station, Nagisa led them to a train heading toward the city. It was mostly empty, just a few salarymen that were stuck working on the weekend.

Sousuke had almost finished his breakfast, when he decided that he probably should at least try to talk to the other boy. Nagisa had finished eating long ago, and was just swinging his feet restlessly back and forth.

“Umm…” he rubbed his head, almost getting the sweet frosting in his hair. “So, where are we going?”

Nagisa turned and gave him a bright smile with wide eyes. “There’s a lunch place in Tokyo I wanted to try!”

Sousuke coughed, almost choking on the remains of his cinnamon roll. “Tokyo is like six hours away. We have school tomorrow!”

“We’re taking the first train there and the last train back.” Nagisa punched him in the shoulder. “Don’t worry! We’ll be back by midnight.”

“Nobody goes on a day trip to Tokyo from here! We’re only going to be there for a few hours before we have to leave.”

“We’ll actually be there for five hours.” Nagisa pouted. “Besides, I already bought the train tickets. You wouldn’t want them to go to waste, would you?”

He wanted to look away from the pouty eyes and disappointed voice of the other boy, but felt guilt gnawing at his insides. “I’m going to regret this,” he sighed, shaking his head and giving a wry smile, “but let’s go to Tokyo.”

Suddenly, he found himself getting hugged. Nagisa had thrown himself across the seat to wrap his arms around his shoulders. “You’re the best!”

He stiffened, before relaxing into the hug, ruffling the other boy’s hair. “This restaurant better be good.”

Nagisa took that as a cue to start chattering about his life and how long he’d been making these plans. While only half-listening to him talk, Sousuke pulled out his phone to see that Rin had replied and found his current situation absolutely hilarious. Rolling his eyes, he sent another text to Rin, warning him that the two of them were headed to Tokyo for the day, and also told him to tell his sister about it, so that the Iwatobi team wasn’t worried.

The train slowed to a stop at the station. Before the doors even opened, Nagisa grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and tugged him upright. He jumped out at the first chance he got, dragging Sousuke with him.

He was sure that they looked utterly ridiculous running through the station. Nagisa looked back, and shouted that they had less than five minutes to catch their bullet train, which was located on the other side of the station. Snatching his arm back, he started to jog alongside Nagisa in earnest, suddenly invested in making a train on a trip he never even wanted to be on in the first place.

They hopped onto the last train car seconds before the doors slid close behind them. Nagisa led them to their seats, which were located three train cars further down. Both of them collapsed onto them, exhausted from the run and the adrenaline high wearing off.

“I’m not sure if I’ve ever moved that fast on land before,” Nagisa said, leaning against him.

“We made it, though,” Sousuke huffed, still trying to catch his breath as he felt the train start to move.

“We can relax now! This train will take us straight to Tokyo.” Even Nagisa’s energy seemed to be waning as he let out a large yawn after speaking. He pulled out headphones from his bag, while Sousuke rummaged through his pockets to find his pair.

His music and the rocking of the the train let him drift off into a light sleep as his body tried to compensate for the unexpected early morning. He woke up as the snack trolley was passing through the train carriage.

He purchased a cup of tea from the cart and grabbed the plastic cup with careful hands, trying not to wake Nagisa, who had fallen asleep leaning against his shoulder. While watching the scenery pass in the window, he sipped his tea and tried not to flinch when it almost burnt his tongue.

His phone buzzed with a text from Nitori asking if he’d like to hang out. Sousuke had to stop himself from laughing, and instead texted about his current situation. He had managed to doze off for almost three hours, and he sorted through the messages that he had missed. Rin continued to laugh at his expense, while Gou had sent a thinly veiled threat to look out for Nagisa.

Sighing, he shifted lower to try to get more comfortable and almost panics when Nagisa follows the movement, almost falling out of his chair, but somehow still managing to stay asleep. He softly moved Nagisa’s head to a more stable position on his shoulder, sighing in relief when the other boy didn’t wake.

The scenery sped by through the window – houses, parks, and empty stretches of farmland interspersed with ultra-urban cities.

Nagisa didn’t wake up until an obnoxiously loud alarm goes off on his phone. He jolted upright, launching himself off Sousuke’s shoulder and almost hitting his head on the seat in front of him.

“Ah!” He yawned and wiped a bit of drool off his mouth. “You could have pushed me off,” he said, finally registering how he had been snuggled against Sousuke’s shoulder for the past few hours.

“And what?” he asked. “Let you fall into the aisle? Besides, I was asleep for most of the trip too.”

Nagisa looked as if he was about to reply, but was interrupted by an announcement that the train would be pulling into Tokyo Station in a few minutes. They scrambled to gather their stuff and made their way to one of the doors.

They hopped off the train and were pushed off the platform into the main concourse by the flood of passengers who had exited with them. Sousuke barely managed to keep track of Nagisa through it all, eventually having to grab onto the other boy’s sweatshirt in order to follow him.

Once they reached the main part of the station, Nagisa seemed to lead them in circles. Twenty minutes passed without the duo exiting the station. “Do you even know where we’re going?” Sousuke asked, pulling Nagisa off to a mostly secluded corner.

“The directions aren’t clear about what exit we have to take,” he answered, fiddling with his phone.

Sousuke took out his phone and snapped a quick picture of the station so that he had proof that he’d come all this way, before opening up his mapping application. “Where are we going anyway?”

“A Michelin Star restaurant that I found online!”

“A Michelin Star?” Sousuke sputtered in surprise, before he squinted suspiciously at Nagisa. “How exactly are we going to pay for it?”

He punched Sousuke in the shoulder and shook his head, smiling. “They have a lunch special that costs less than 1000 yen. I just hope we’re able to get a table.”

Looking down at his phone, Sousuke searched for the place and managed to pull up his own directions to the restaurant. He pulled on the sleeve of Nagisa’s sweatshirt, causing him to look up from his own phone. “Come on. If we’re going to do this, let’s do this.”

They fell into step with each other, navigating around the school groups and families going on day trips, and finally exited the station. Nagisa chattered away next to him, and he interrupted before the next story about Iwatobi’s Swim Club shenanigans could begin. “The restaurant is a 30-minute walk away. Do you want to take the train?”

Nagisa ran ahead and spread his arms out, spinning and letting the sun hit his face. “It’s a nice day. We can walk!” The boy was practically giddy with infectious excitement, and Sousuke laughed along while jogging to catch-up. As the two twisted and turned through the streets of Tokyo, Sousuke found himself enjoying the day and Nagisa’s energetic company.

There was a line snaking outside the door of the restaurant when they arrived. When they tried to join the line, they were told by a courteous staff member that the line had been closed two hours before and that they should try again tomorrow.

After recovering from the shock that they had traveled six hours for nothing, Sousuke led them to a public bench to figure out their next plan. Nagisa kicked at the ground and fiddled with the hem of his sweatshirt, oddly quiet and clearly disappointed. He let the other boy mope for a bit, while he sent an update to Rin, who would no doubt find the turn of events hysterical.

Finally, Sousuke knocked shoulders with the other boy, causing him to look up at him. “So, what’s the plan now?”

“What are you talking about?” Nagisa rubbed at his eyes and his shoulders drooped. “We can’t go to the restaurant.”

“The way I see it, we still have–” Sousuke glanced down at his phone, “four hours and seven minutes until our train leaves. We came all the way to Tokyo, we might as well make the most of it.”

“Why are you asking me?” Nagisa looked genuinely confused.

He knocked their shoulders together again. “Because this is _your_ adventure.”

“I guess it is.” Nagisa gave a small smile, looking down at his lap before focusing on Sousuke. “Why don’t we make plans over lunch?”

He pulled Sousuke off the bench and started to walk down the road, weaving in between other pedestrians.

He hurried to catch up and tried to ask where they were going. Sousuke didn’t get an answer, instead Nagisa just mumbled something about finding a place to eat. The two of them wandered through streets, admiring the skyscrapers and atmosphere of a big city until they stumbled upon a small noodle shop hidden halfway down an alley.

Nagisa gave him an inquiring look, but Sousuke just shrugged and smiled, urging the two of them through the door. The restaurant was mostly empty, with just a couple of the tables occupied by older couples. They were led to sit at the front counter and handed glasses of water and menus by the staff.

They quickly skimmed the menu before placing their order. While waiting for their food to arrive, the two used their phones to find out what they could do in Tokyo with their remaining time.

Before they could make plans, their food arrived. The servings were huge, with each of them getting a large bowl of noodles with broth, tempura, pickled vegetables, and gyoza. All of their talking ceased while the two of them dug into their food, practically inhaling it in their hunger.

“This is the best soba that I’ve ever had!” Nagisa exclaimed, once he slowed down after the initial frenzied eating.

“Definitely way better than anything we can get back home,” Sousuke added after he finished slurping his udon.

The two of them made small talk until they had finished their meal. Even with their bellies full and their moods recovered, they still hadn’t to figure out what to do in Tokyo. They ended up settling for shopping and exploring the city.

Sousuke was surprised how much he enjoyed it. They tried on clothes at an upscale boutique until they got kicked out, stopped at a bakery for a cheap afternoon snack, and ended up having to run to catch their train because they got distracted in a candy store for way too long.

Once again, they found themselves trying to catch their breaths on the train, except this time it was filled with laughter. They joked about what would have happened if they got stuck in Tokyo overnight and how their respective teams would have ridiculed them for it.

The rest of the train ride passed in the same way, with the two of them sharing jokes and stories, sharing headphones, and curling around a single phone to conserve battery life. Over the course of the day, an easy camaraderie had developed between them that was only strengthened by the five hour ride back.

When Sousuke finally arrived back at his dorm, just before midnight, Rin was already there. He looked up from the magazine he was reading when he walked through the door.  

“How was your adventure with Nagisa?” Rin teased, a shit-eating grin on his face.

Sousuke shook his head in disbelief and smiled. “It was actually pretty great.” He flashed a sharp look to Rin. “Don’t tell him, though. I don’t want him to think that 6AM adventures are going to be a regular thing.”

“Guess, I’ll just have to send him the video confession,” Rin said, flashing his phone in Sousuke’s face.

He dived across the room to wrestle the phone away from Rin and delete any evidence of the conversation. He felt his own phone buzz and without even looking he knew it was another next from Nagisa.

Something told him that he’d be getting a lot of texts from the other boy from now on.

**Author's Note:**

> The restaurant that Nagisa and Sousuke try to go to is tangentially based on a [real Michelin Star restaurant](https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g1066457-d1664217-Reviews-Nakajima-Shinjuku_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html) (albeit, it's located in a different part of Tokyo). 
> 
> Sidenote: The two of them probably wouldn't be eating on the local train/bus because that's not generally what people do in Japan (unless you're a tourist), but I have no clue where Nagisa managed to get the money to buy train tickets to Tokyo, either. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
